This invention relates to compounds useful in treating sickle cell anemia and, more specifically, it relates to a method of resisting sickling of sickle hemoglobin in a sickle cell anemia patient.
Sickle cell anemia is a hereditary blood disease which primarily afflicts people of African, Mediterranean and Mideastern origin or their descendants. The anemia results from the physical aggregation of a mutant hemoglobin protein constituent, hemoglobin S, in red blood cells. This aggregation results in a distortion in shape of deoxygenated red blood cells and causes impairment of flow of the blood through the capillaries (sickle cell "crises"). As the principal function of hemoglobin is to transport oxygen from the lungs to body tissues, efficient flow of oxygen throughout the body's tissues is impeded by the anemia due to a lower number of red blood cells. Sickle cell anemia also may have an indirect effect on the heart, lungs, kidneys, spleen, bones and brain. Sickle cell anemia crises can be extremely painful, can result in infections such as pneumonia, can result in skin ulceration, can contribute to strokes and seizures in the afflicted individuals and can also result in the development of chronic bone infections.
In general, the result of the differences between cells containing hemoglobin A, the normal hemoglobin, and hemoglobin S, the sickle cell hemoglobin, is that in the deoxygenated state the former cell is generally flexible and biconcave discoid in shape, while the latter is more rigid and crescent shaped and typically has pointed ends. This rigidity and distortion in shape causes the cells to be lodged in the capillary. Hemoglobin molecules contain two beta polypetide chains and two alpha polypeptide chains. In the sickle cell hemoglobin, a mutation is present in the beta chains. More specifically, the sixth amino acid of each beta chain is changed from glutamic acid to valine. As a result of this mutation, hemoglobin S upon deoxygenation polymerizes and causes the cell to assume the elongated, sickle-like configuration. As the sickle cells have a much shorter life span than normal red cells, the body depletes the sickled cells more quickly thereby creating an anemic condition.
Electrophoresis is one of the well established laboratory tests employed in diagnosing sickle cell anemia. Electrophoresis tests determine whether an individual has sickle cell anemia (homozygous) or merely the sickle cell trait (heterozygous). The latter refers to an individual not having the disease but having the capability of transmitting the disease to offspring if mated to another heterozygote.
One major assay for evaluating antisickling agents involves measuring their effect on increasing the concentration at which sickle hemoglobin forms a gel. This is called the solubility or C.sub.sat assay.
Another well established laboratory test employed for determining the potential effectiveness of an antisickling agent is by determining the oxygendisassociation curve. When a graph is plotted of the percentage saturation of hemoglobin with oxygen (ordinate) against the partial pressure of oxygen, sometimes called the oxygen tension (abscissa) a characteristic sigmoid curve is obtained. With respect to the curve obtained with whole blood from normal adults, that obtained with whole blood from sickle-cell anemia sufferers is displaced to the right with a loss of sigmoidicity. That is to say, the hemoglobin in the sickle-cell erythrocytes appears to have a reduced oxygen affinity compared with that in the normal erythrocytes, a higher oxygen tension being required to produce a given percentage saturation. (With whole blood from individuals having the sickle-cell trait the curve is not significantly displaced from the normal).
The compounds of this invention are effective in both increasing sickle hemoglobin solubility toward more normal values (C.sub.sat assay) and in left-shifting (normalizing) the oxygen disassociation curve.
Treatment for the various complications which have resulted from sickle cell anemia are known and should be distinguished from prophylactic treatment which is unknown and would eliminate the occurrence of the complications and adverse symptoms. Currently, symptomatic treatment is available. For example, one can treat the symptoms by using analgesics for pain, or antibiotics for infection, but these approaches do not arrest the underlying sickling phenomena.
There remains, therefore, a very real and substantial need for a treatment method which minimizes the adverse consequences of sickle cell anemia by directly inhibiting the underlying cause of sickle cell crises.
The present invention has met the above-described need by providing a method which preferably involves administering to a person a therapeutically effective dosage of a compound of this invention. This dosage is administered by the compound being reacted extracorporeally with the patient's own blood or the agent may be given orally. In the former approach the agent is preferably administered to stored blood samples taken from patients and then the blood is readministered.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of treating a sickle cell anemia patient's blood so as to reduce undesired sickle cell crises.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an effective means for resisting undesired sickling of hemoglobin in sickle cell anemia patients.